In Israel, Hanukkah begins in the shadow of two months of war

ImageRabbi Arie Levin, a reservist, lights a menorah at a military base in Ramla, Israel, on Thursday.Credit ...Tamir Kalifa for the New York Times

ImageMusicians next to a large menorah in Tel Aviv Art Museum Square on Thursday.Credit...Tamir Kalifa for the New York Times

Israelis gathered again Thursday evening on Tel Aviv Square Aviv where demonstrators have gathered for two months. called for the release of hostages in Gaza, but this time they came to mark the start of Hanukkah.

Holding signs showing the faces of the 138 people still held hostage and wearing yellow T-shirts, necklaces and bracelets that demanded "take them home now," participants said this year's Hanukkah was not a holiday for staying at home, but a holiday for coming together and supporting each other.

“Maybe there is something in the power of coming together,” Julia Ferment said. “Maybe some of that energy, that strength is reaching them.”

Relatives of hostages, groups of friends and soldiers huddled together quietly near a long table with 138 candles, one for each lost loved one. Family members and friends were invited to light the yellow candles. Then they were kissed as they moved in front of the crowd.

The Hanukkah blessings, which in Jewish tradition are repeated eight nights, had new meaning for hundreds of people. who sang, some with tears in their eyes, others with their eyes closed, their hands on their hearts.

A few kilometers to the south, in Ramla, another group of Israelis gathered to mark the start of the holiday at a military base. The reservists, many with graying hair and families back home, were delighted to find traditional Hanukkah pastries — jelly donuts called sufganiyot — waiting for them when they entered the warehouse for dinner. Another reservist had just proudly sprinkled powdered sugar on the pastries.

Rabbi Arie Levin, a father of 11 who usually works in Tel Aviv, brought the group together around the table. holding donuts and a menorah. There is a lot of darkness, he said, then he pointed to the menorah, and here is a little light. He lit a candle.

It was the third time he lit a menorah that night. He had previously made candles with another group of soldiers on the other side of the base and with a group of people living in a Tel Aviv hotel, displaced from their homes in Israel's north and south. Soon, he would leave the military base to return home and join the families of the hostages for another lighting of candles at a synagogue.

When the menorah was lit in Ramla, The soldiers danced to a traditional Hanukkah song. In Tel Aviv, the air was calm when the candles were lit. Almost immediately, a voice from the back of the crowd began the chant that has echoed in this square for more than 60 days.

"Now, now, now, now," people said.